'He carries harder than anything I've seen in the Premiership' - two expats give an insight into Major League Rugby
The latest attempt to establish a professional competition in the United States will come to fruition next week with the dawn of Major League Rugby (MLR).
Seven teams from across the country – Austin Elite, Glendale Raptors, Houston SaberCats, New Orleans Gold, San Diego Legion, Seattle Seawolves and Utah Warriors – will compete for the inaugural title and the attention of the sports-mad American public over the following three months.
The play-offs will culminate in a ‘Championship Game’ that will take place at the 6,000-capacity Torero Stadium in San Diego and among those hoping that the hosts grace that stage is the man leading the Legion’s charge – head coach Rob Hoadley.
The former Wasps and London Irish favourite was lured to the ‘land of opportunity’ for the one-season wonder that was PRO Rugby, and while that dream may have sadly died, Hoadley remains committed to growing the game in the USA – but in a different guise.
“Like many, I was intrigued by the potential of the American rugby landscape,” said Hoadley, reflecting on his original decision to switch to the States, “and having spoken to a few people in the game I felt the opportunity to expand my horizons could be something that would really pay dividends in the long term.”
A Premiership and European Cup winner during his playing career, Hoadley was also excited by the chance to build something from the very beginning with the Legion.
“The European rugby landscape is amazing, I love it,” said Hoadley, who began his coaching journey at Wasps under the guidance of Shaun Edwards and who remains a mentor. “I look back on some big Premiership games and European games which were incredible, but essentially you are doing the same thing over and over again.
“Here it is a whole new landscape. You can pick and choose what you think are the best elements from around the world and create your own vision of how you want to do it and then apply that to the American sporting landscape that is completely unique in itself.”
Hoadley has just 15 full time professionals to work with along with 12 ‘associates’ who will juggle work or study with training. However, the team’s proximity to US Olympic training centre in Chula Vista brings with it an added bonus.
“We also have a deal with USA 7s and head coach Mike Friday where we have access to their players when they are not competing in the World Series,” he explained.
Someone else who is no stranger to the Sevens Series is Legion forwards and breakdown coach – and former England 7s star – Chris Cracknell.
“It’s just like being in Fiji and trying to create a dream that a lot of people haven’t been able to build over here yet,” said Cracknell, who helped steer Fiji to Olympic gold in 2016 as an assistant to head coach Ben Ryan.
With league regulations stipulating a maximum five overseas players in a match day 23, the pressure is on to identify and develop home grown players.
“We want to stay true to our values in terms of developing American talent,” said Cracknell. “We are blessed to have eight US Eagles with us including the captain Nate Augspurger, Cam Dolan and Ben Cima, the guy who has been doing the rounds on social media recently with his flick kick.”
“We’ve also got young, up and coming talent like Gil Covey and a guy called Sione Tu’ihalamaka who has played Division 1 College Football.
“He’s transitioning from American Football into rugby and he’s an unbelievable athlete, talk about raw power, he carries harder than anything I have seen in the Premiership and Super Rugby.
10 minutes before kickoff. #mlr #rugby #utahwarriors pic.twitter.com/fw7jaW6JtT
— DAVEY WILSON (@daveywilson) April 10, 2018
“His angles and understanding and way of learning is something I don’t think rugby has quite caught up to yet, because he is coming from an American Football background. He is used to a play book five inches thick and so if I give him two or three lineouts to learn he’s like ‘cool’!
“We have got a real mix but again that is exciting for us as a coaching group and we are determined to get them all on the same page as quickly as possible and make this team successful,” concluded Cracknell.
The Legion also benefit from access to the EXOS ‘human performance centre’ in San Diego that Hoadley firmly believes is one of the best training facilities in the world.
“It’s cutting edge, they are training the best athletes in the world,” explained Hoadley. “They have got a depth of knowledge that isn’t available in Europe, it’s different, now we must just apply their knowledge to rugby.”
Hoadley is honest in his assessment of the likely standard of the competition but adamant as to where it will be in the near future.
“The start may be possibly equivalent to National League 1 in England and it is up to us to build it up. The biggest thing you will notice when you compare it to top flight rugby elsewhere is that the speed is not there at this stage.
“The real challenge for the players is to execute skills at a pace above what they are used to.
“For us at the moment in training, we are pushing and exceeding the limits of the players. Skill acquisition is only useful if you can execute under intense pressure.
“A big thing for us is to build that capability and it will take time but now the guys are in a full-time environment there is no excuse for not implementing that.”
But Hoadley knows that his side’s success is just one essential part of the bigger picture that includes the USA Eagles, USA 7s and every other MLR franchise.
“We need to create a great product and really to get eyes on it and engage the American public,” he explained. “At the Legion we need to grow and be competitive but we need the other teams to grow as well so that the product brings people in.
“Gary Gold has already had a great impact on the USA team, they just went back-to-back in the Americas Rugby Championship, and the same weekend Mike Friday’s USA 7s team won the Las Vegas title.
“It’s incredibly encouraging and we want to create a dream pathway for our players that they can play professional rugby and then go on and represent the USA.
“That vision is something that guys can get behind and we’ll start attracting more and more of the best athletes which should help create success for the Legion, success for American rugby a great product that people around the world want to be involved with.”
Watch episode one the RugbyPass Original: ‘Rugby Explorer’ with Jim Hamilton
Ex-Scotland international, Jim Hamilton, travels to Singapore to explore the city and find out more about the rugby scene in the Southeast Asian country. He meets up with the national team captain and several local players.
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to comments